


out my guitar and under your skin (that's where my love goes)

by dreamweavernyx



Series: the better ground (wakanda modern-day!AU) [5]
Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: A LIBERAL SPRINKLING OF FLUFF, Bad Puns, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Timeskip!Fic, You Have Been Warned, and other arcade games, cute dates, dance battles, gratuitous nerd jokes, puns galore, shuri is a genius but still incredibly clueless, the whole gang is pretty much all mentioned but didn't want to tag all of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 23:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14658693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamweavernyx/pseuds/dreamweavernyx
Summary: The space next to her in bed is empty and cold, though it still smells faintly of MJ’s woodsy shampoo. A small post-it sits on the pillow, with MJ’s elegant scrawl written on it in blue ballpoint ink. Had to leave for a breaking story, it says. I’ll text you later for dinner? :)Or, MJ takes Shuri on a weekend date, and though Shuri doesn't know it yet, it will be one to remember.





	out my guitar and under your skin (that's where my love goes)

**Author's Note:**

> Title/theme song of this fic is ["Where My Love Goes"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xwr7Jw-dqM) by Lawson. 
> 
> Y'all I swear I really was intending to write a w'kabi/okoye fic first, but then these gosh darn cute lesbians got in my head and wouldn't leave until I wrote this fluffy fic for them. Thank you so much for all the comments on the other instalments in this 'verse! Your lovely comments are my inspiration to write more <3
> 
> As always, lovingly betaread by irrationaljasmine.
> 
> Please note that this fic is set in a TIMESKIP - it takes place roughly six years after _turn a little faster_.

It's a beautiful Saturday morning, and Shuri wakes up lazily, enjoying the warm morning sun. It’s the first weekend in a whole month that she hasn’t been cooped up in the labs working feverishly on her latest technological breakthrough; Ms Potts had given her a _look_ yesterday and sent her home with strict instructions not to come in to work for the next three days. (Which meant a free day off on Monday; Shuri’s definitely not complaining.)

 

The space next to her in bed is empty and cold, though it still smells faintly of MJ’s woodsy shampoo. A small post-it sits on the pillow, with MJ’s elegant scrawl written on it in blue ballpoint ink. _Had to leave for a breaking story_ , it says. _I’ll text you later for dinner? :)_

 

They’ve been dating for a long time at this point, but Shuri still feels a little thrill go through her as she traces her fingers over the smiley. Never mind that she’s received way too many of these pillow post-its, owing to MJ’s hectic on-call job as a journalist; every absentminded doodle still makes her smile.

 

It’s warm and comfortable under the blankets, and she’s seriously contemplating burrowing back under them and sleeping all the way to lunch, but at that exact moment her phone vibrates with a text from Peter asking if she wants to go to the arcade. Shuri won’t turn down a chance to destroy Peter at Dance Dance Revolution, so she quickly texts back a _yes!!!!_ before flopping out of bed.

 

~

 

Peter is bouncing in place impatiently when she runs up to the arcade, blouse half-untucked and hair messily braided back. Ned waves to her from where he’s slouched to the side, before he goes back to his Tetris.

 

“Look at us,” she says, “grown-ass adults all excited to play some arcade games and beat out all the kids.”

 

“Revenge is mine today,” replies Peter. “Loser of the dance battle pays for all the tokens?”

 

“Deal,” she says. “Then after that we can raid the claw machines.”

 

“I’ll film,” says Ned. Shuri nods approvingly; the last time they’d had a Dance Dance Revolution showdown, she had won; without video proof, however, and with Peter vigorously denying his defeat (and Ned staying silent) her bragging rights had been somewhat diminished. She won’t make the same mistake twice.

 

“You’re going down, Parker,” she says.

 

Peter does, in fact, go down. Shuri doesn’t know why Peter thinks he’s good at dance – for all his quick reflexes, he has the grace of a baby fawn, and atrocious hand-eye coordination. She’s soon cackling as he staggers off the Dance Dance Revolution machine, red-faced and panting. Behind them, the last strains of “Single Ladies” fade away as the game declares Shuri the winner.

 

Ned stops filming, and becomes absorbed in texting on his phone as a triumphant Shuri leads the way to the claw machines (her and Peter’s greatest nemesis). For some unknown reason, the arcade happens to have one claw machine with physics-related toys from the Particle Zoo, even though Shuri is positive none of the children who try out the machine know what a quark or a proton is. But it appeals to the physics geek in her and Peter, and they have spent many a weekend crushed in defeat in front of the machine.

 

“Higgs boson!” Peter yells, somewhat re-energised at the sight of the machine. “Today is the day I will have my revenge!”

 

The black, star-shaped toy smiles blankly down at both of them from its precarious perch on top of a mountain of white photons. Shuri cackles.

 

“Hey, Peter,” she says, “what did the Catholic priest say to the Higgs boson when it tried to go to church?”

 

She thinks she hears Ned snort behind her; he’s heard this one before. Peter shrugs.

 

“He said: ‘You’re a heretic! How dare you come in here, calling yourself the God Particle?’”

 

“And how did the Higgs boson reply?”

 

“It said: ‘but without me,’” Shuri snickers, “‘how would you have mass?’”

 

They break down giggling in front of the machine for a bit. Shuri thinks she feels a couple of judgmental stares, possibly from concerned parents wondering why two fully-fledged adults are crouched in front of a claw machine and laughing themselves silly.

 

Eventually they recover and try their hand at the claw machine for a bit. At one point, Peter manages to maneuver the claw and grasp the Higgs boson; halfway to the chute, however, the toy wobbles and falls out of the weak grasp of the machine’s claw.

 

“Nooooo,” groans Peter, and slides to the floor in defeat. Absently, Shuri takes the last token from his slack grip, and puts it into the machine.

 

“What are you trying now?” Ned asks, looking up briefly from his phone. (Just _who_ is he texting?)

 

“Peter loosened it and now the label’s sticking out,” Shuri replies, sticking her tongue between her teeth as she carefully nudges the claw a little to the right. “I’m trying to hook that little plastic string that attaches the label to the Higgs boson.”

 

There’s a heart-stopping moment where Shuri thinks she’d missed, but then the claw comes back up with the toy dangling precariously from one of the hooks, looking like it might fall out of the claw’s grip if she so much as breathes in its direction.

 

The toy drops and falls, teetering on the plastic edge of the wall surrounding the chute. Shuri gives the machine an impatient smack, and the Higgs boson wobbles a little more, before tilting and falling down the chute.

 

“Here you go, milady,” she says, handing the toy to Peter with a grin and flourish. Peter takes it reverently, squishing it a couple of times and running his finger along the plush material.

 

“I shall call you Squishy,” he says, “and you shall be my Squishy.”

 

“Um,” interrupts Ned, rather abruptly, giving Peter a meaningful glance that Shuri can’t really interpret. “Let’s get coffee!”

 

“…Oh! Yes! Coffee!” says Peter, after a beat. “Let’s go find Erik.”

 

Shuri looks between the two of them suspiciously, and then shrugs. They’re hiding something for sure, but she can’t tell what it is, and she won’t say no to one of Erik’s excellent soy lattes.

 

~

 

They grab lunch on the way to the Better Ground. At their booth at McDonalds, Peter passes Shuri a crumpled paper bag that he’d dug out from his backpack. “MJ wanted to borrow this,” he says. “Can you pass it to her the next time you see her?”

 

Shuri peers inside and sees a small Bluetooth speaker. Vaguely, she remembers MJ complaining that the battery inside hers had leaked last month, so she shrugs and accepts the paper bag. She does wonder, for a second, why MJ needs a speaker – usually she just blasts music straight out of her PC.

 

(She dismisses the question in the next instant.)

 

When they arrive at the café, comfortably full of burgers, it’s pretty full of chattering customers. All three of them call a greeting to Erik, who’s sat behind the counter. To Shuri’s surprise, Nakia is also behind the counter, slicing a tall lemon-and-blueberry cake into eight pieces.

 

“Is my brother here?” she asks, sliding into a counter seat with her hot soy latte. Nakia looks up from the cake and shakes her head.

 

“He had a business meeting,” says Nakia, and then: “Oh! He asked me to pass you this.”

 

She rustles up a paper bag from behind the counter, and hands it to Shuri along with a slice of the cake. A second slice is passed to a practically-salivating Peter as Shuri sets down her own and peers curiously inside the bag. She’s mystified to see a punnet of summer strawberries inside.

 

“…Did _ubhuti_ explain why he gave me these?”

 

“It’s the first batch of strawberries this summer,” Nakia replies, grinning. “He said you’d know what to do with them soon.”

 

That’s a horribly cryptic explanation, but Shuri loves strawberries and isn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she carefully places the paper bag into the top pocket of her backpack, where it won’t be crushed easily.

 

As she begins to dig into her cake, she feels something furry twine around her legs, and looks down to see Kiki, the store cat. “Hi, girl,” she coos, reaching down to scritch her gently at the top of her head. Kiki yawns in response, and bats at the loose ends of her shoelaces.

 

Next to Peter, Ned gets up suddenly from his chair, looking at his phone. “I’ll, uh, see you later,” he says, seemingly more to Peter than Shuri. “A _friend_ needs some help with, uh, _supplies_.”

 

He stresses “friend” and “supplies” with a meaningful look at Peter (which, again, Shuri can’t decipher), and then he’s out the door.

 

“Well,” says Peter, awkwardly. “Weird, huh?”

 

~

 

Around late afternoon, she gets a text from MJ. _I’m done! Meet you at Riverside? Then we can decide what to eat for dinner._

 

Gulping down the rest of her (second) latte in one go, Shuri slides off the bar stool and hoists her bag. “Going to meet MJ for dinner,” she says. “Bye!”

 

“Hey,” Erik calls before she can run out of the café. He heaves out a wicker basket and passes it to her. “From Nakia and me.”

 

Shuri feels even more confused now, and peers inside the basket. Inside is about half a loaf of sliced sourdough bread, some cold cuts, and a bunch of pastries.

 

“…It’s not my birthday,” she says, looking back up at Erik, who shrugs.

 

“Just take the damn basket,” he grumbles. “Quickly, before Kiki gets any ideas and tries to grab some of the ham she’s been eyeing all afternoon.”

 

Nonplussed, she hooks the basket on her arm, and then leaves the café.

 

~

 

MJ’s waiting for her on a bench facing the river when Shuri reaches Riverside Park. She’s still dressed in her slim ankle-length work slacks and neat button-down, though small curls are now escaping from her tidy ponytail. Shuri takes a moment to stare (she really doesn’t get tired of looking at MJ’s side profile), before she comes up and taps MJ on the shoulder.

 

“Hey,” she greets when MJ turns around. She sees MJ’s gaze alight on the basket, and hastens to explain: “Erik dumped this on me when I was at the café just now, don’t judge.”

 

MJ grins. “It’s okay,” she says, taking Shuri’s hand and leading her over to where a dark blue cloth has been spread out in the shade of some trees. “I asked him to give it to you. I thought we could have a picnic today, but didn’t have time to pick up all the food since I had work beforehand.”

 

 _Ah_. Suddenly, things start to make sense. “Did you ask my brother for strawberries too?”

 

“Ah, yes.”

 

Bemused, Shuri hands over the strawberries, and also the speaker from Peter. “Why would my brother know that you wanted to picnic with me for dinner today?”

 

MJ doesn’t answer, though there’s a mischievous smirk playing around her lips as she unpacks the food. The speaker is set down at the edge of the picnic mat, and MJ sets it up with her phone; in a second, the air is filled with the gentle sounds of Boyce Avenue. She also pulls a bottle of champagne out from a tiny cooler hidden behind one of the trees, and Shuri stares.

 

“I’ve seen that exact bottle in my Aunt Okoye’s wine fridge,” she says, narrowing her eyes and studying the label on the bottle. MJ laughs, and Shuri figures that non-answer is an answer in and of itself as to where the champagne came from. It doesn’t, however, solve the mystery of how everybody seems to know about their dinner plans for today.

 

MJ pours each of them a cold glass of champagne into a fancy plastic wineglass, and they take a sip.

 

“We first met here,” MJ says once she’s set down her champagne. “Well, not _here_ , exactly, but at Columbia, which is just behind. I thought it would be nice to come back to where we began.”

 

Shuri’s heart melts a little, and she shuffles over on the picnic mat to lay her head on MJ’s shoulder. “We’ve come so far since then,” she says thoughtfully. “I can’t believe I used to be too intimidated by you to talk to you, you dork.”

 

MJ playfully shoves her, and then feeds her a strawberry. It’s sweet, and like warm summer sunshine.

 

~

 

By the time they finish the food, and have worked their way through half of the champagne, the sun is beginning to set over the river, dyeing the sky a beautiful pinkish-orange. Shuri is startled out of her food coma-induced doze when MJ shifts against her, reaching out to rustle for something near the trees.

 

There’s a _click_ , and suddenly strings of fairy lights flicker on, draping the trees above them in trails of dancing light. MJ looks proud of herself, pushing an errant curl away from her forehead.

 

“How-” Shuri sputters, now wide awake. “How did you have the time to set that up?”

 

“Ned helped me,” MJ grins. “He owed me a favour.”

 

Shuri dimly remembers Ned, awkwardly rushing out of the Better Ground with a flimsy excuse earlier. “Ah,” she says. “No wonder he kept texting.”

 

MJ laughs softly, and then comes back to sit beside Shuri on the picnic mat. “Shuri,” she says, “do you not remember what day it is?”

 

“Um,” says Shuri. “...No?” (It’s not like she’s _atrocious_ at dates, but given her work stress recently she’s kind of lost track of her mental calendar.)

 

“Shuri,” MJ murmurs, reaching out to tangle their fingers together. “Six years ago, today, you agreed to go watch _A Wrinkle in Time_ with me.”

 

“Six years since our first not-date?” Shuri teases.

 

“Mm, and six years since I decided to explore the universe with you.”

 

Shuri’s glad for the darkening sky, now, because she feels her cheeks flush as she squirms. “Sap,” she grumbles, pushing her face into MJ’s shoulder. “If someone had told me six years ago that the cool and aloof MJ was actually soft and cuddly underneath, I’d had laughed.”

 

“Oh yeah?” hums MJ. “What if they told you that the cool and aloof MJ would someday ask you to stay with her forever?”

 

“I’d- _wait_.” Shuri sits up abruptly, looks at MJ. “Did you just say-”

 

MJ shuffles a little on the mat, so that she’s facing Shuri, and takes one of Shuri’s hands in hers. In her other, Shuri dimly realises that MJ’s holding a velvet box, and inside it is a ring. It’s made of delicate crisscrossing silver bands, and in the centre is a cluster of four stars – two are picked out in diamonds, and yet another two have a deep purple amethyst set in the centre. It’s _perfect_.

 

Shuri suddenly feels like she’s falling (in love) all over again, breath whooshing out from her lungs as she stares at the ring in MJ’s hand. The ring. That MJ is offering to her.

 

“Oh my god,” she whispers. “I’m dreaming. Pinch me.”

 

MJ reaches up to gently pinch her on the cheek, smiling softly. “Not a dream,” she says.

 

“Is this why- oh my god, this is _exactly why_ everybody knew you wanted to have a picnic, isn’t it? Because it wasn’t just a picnic?”

 

“It certainly was more than a picnic. It was, uh, a ‘pick-me’.”

 

The joke is deadpan, as MJ’s joke deliveries usually go, and Shuri can’t help but crack up, doubling over with giggles. “That pun was terrible.”

 

“But it was genuine,” says MJ. “Like this ring. Shuri, listen: I know we’re still young and not earning that much, and that we’re still living out of a tiny rented apartment. I don’t have the steadiest of jobs, and I don’t know yet whether I want to keep doing what I’m doing in the future. But I know one thing for certain, and that is that I’d like for you to be there, somewhere, in whichever future I end up living.”

 

Shuri’s breath catches, and there’s a pause, as though the world around them is waiting for her answer.

 

“Yes,” she whispers. “I’d love to. If you’ll have me.”

 

 

 

_fin._

**Author's Note:**

> xhosa translations:  
> ubhuti = older brother
> 
> Y'all, it was so hard to do the summary and opening notes without spoilering the ending. All I can say is, if you've heard the theme song for the fic before, it really sets the mood for the whole story. :>
> 
> MJ is a journalist for the New York Times! Shuri is currently working in the labs at Stark Industries (which, in this 'verse, as it should in all 'verses, is run by CEO Pepper Potts). She will, eventually, leave SI and open up her own tech startup, but that hasn't happened yet at the point in time of this fic.
> 
> The Particle Zoo is [a real thing](https://www.particlezoo.net/pages/about), it sells adorable stuffed toys in the shape of various particles of the spacetime continuum. The one Peter is eyeing, in particular, is the [Higgs boson](https://www.particlezoo.net/products/higgs-boson), which is a small particle that acts somewhat like a photon. Where a photon helps in the transmission of light, however, the Higgs boson is involved in the [transmission of mass](https://science.howstuffworks.com/higgs-boson1.htm), hence Shuri's nerdy-as-hell joke.
> 
> Riverside Park is a real place - it runs alongside the Hudson River in New York and part of it [goes through](http://www.columbia.edu/files/columbia/content/morningsidemap_2015aug.pdf) [the Columbia University campus](http://kimbriggs.com/photo/new-york-city-manhattan/uptown-nyc/riverside-park), where Shuri and MJ studied! The sunset picnic by the river looks [something like this](https://brooklynbrainery.com/courses/waterfront-walking-tour-at-hudson-river-park) (though the photo is tiny).
> 
> The Ring looks like [this](https://www.zales.com/enchanted-disney-tinker-bell-tourmaline-110-ct-tw-diamond-star-ring-sterling-silver-size-7/p/V-20109042), but the green gems are purple instead.


End file.
